Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold...

[fajrdrako]

Anyone who knows my reading tastes knows how much I love Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels - science fiction detailing the life, mostly, of Miles Vorkosigan, a diminutive, hyperactive, ingenious aristocrat from the planet Barrayar - though readers of my lj may have noticed that my favourite character in the series is his father Aral, who was hero of the first novel, Shards of Honor.

After a decade of writing fantasy, Bujold has finally written another Vorkosigan novel, called Cryoburn. I always feel vaguely guilty about not liking her fantasy as much as her science fiction - it must be very frustrating for an author to write her heart out and have readers say, "I liked it better when you did what you were doing before." But even with that sense that I should show my love and gratitude for the Vorkosigan novels by appreciating the fantasy more, Bujold's fantasy worlds don't charm me, and much as I liked the romance of Dag and Fawn, they weren't Vorkosigans.

So. Cryoburn. The hardcover won't be out for a few months yet; if you're as impatient as I was, you can get an advance eBook copy at the publisher's website. $15 and a bargain at the price - though I usually consider eBooks overpriced.

Comments and thoughts:

1. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, but it's a 'case' - that is to say that, like Diplomatic Immunity, for example, the plot is a situation the hero stumbled upon and has to handle - his life isn't intrinsic to the plot, even though Miles once died and was revived after having been frozen - technology that is the basis of the story. I read it expecting Miles to be frozen again, or for someone he loved to be - but no. Except that he undergoes dangers on Kibou, ths isn't Miles' story. It's a story about corruption in the cryo-reveival business.
   
   The story doesn't centre on Miles' life till the end, when Miles has left the plane, and at Escobar station receives the news that his father was dead.
   
   The epilogue is the only part that really engaged my heart and emotions.
   
   
2. As mentioned, I adore Aral Vorkosigan, and set up a muse site for him at aral_vorkosigan. He doesn't appear a lot in the books about Miles, though some of his first appearances are among my favourite Bujold scenes, at an emotional intensity usually reached by only Dorothy Dunnett.
   
   For reasons I can guess at but can't actually know, for the past number of Vorkosigan novels, Aral Vorkosigan has been absent, aging and frail, with a heart problem. This in a society where technology makes healthy old age normal. Aral is only about 45 years older than Miles. He was healthy in youth, but took to drink for a time - did that weaken his constitution?
   
   In any case, it was clear that Bujold planned to deal very soon now with Aral's death, and has done so. It didn't come as either surprise or disappointment - it was the other shoe dropping.
   
   It reminds me of the death of Sherlock Holmes, where the author feels the character must die, even though that choice is neither inevitable nor desired by others. Still, it does leave us with Miles' dealing with Aral's death, and his new role as Count Vorkosigan.
   
   
3. The book ends with a series of wonderful drabbles about Aral's death. I've never seen drabbles in a novel before. I find this... rather delightful.
   
   
4. Miles' clone brother appears in this book again. He's a character I don't much like, and even though I still didn't like him here, he wasn't as annoying as he sometimes is. His partner Kareen reminded me of Miss Goddard in the Doctor Who episode "Dalek". I don't think that's what I'm supposed to think. (No, I don't much like Kareen either.)
   
   
5. Though barely mentioned, Sasha/Alex/Xander seems to be quite a personality.
   
   
6. I liked Jin, his sister, his pets, and his mother. I liked the sphinx, a plausible follow-up to biotechnology we've seen in Bujold novels before, which reminded me of Bubastis in Watchmen.
   
   
7. I liked Vorlynken. I liked Roic - how could one not? - though he still feels too much like a substitute for Ivan.
   
   
8. It struck me as an unlikely coincidence that in escaping from his captors, Miles was rescued by the one runaway boy who was at the center of the situation, and who had the knowledge and contacts by which Miles could figure out something was going on. We aren't told the total population of the planet, but that seemed to be a little too wildly coincidental to me.
   
   
9. Favourite line: Miles fearing that his kids will realize he isn't really a grownup. Funny thing: I suspect they already know.
   
   
10. I felt the story skimped a little on substance - the big moral issues were skirted but not quite addressed or put to the test. Moral issues are usually Bujold's greatest writing strength - matters of choice, temptation, trust, loyalty, cruelty and kindness. Maybe the issues were too big in this case. Bujold has always dealt very well with questions of life and death, and I expected a climactic point where Miles would have to make a big decision - to freeze someone or not, to revive them or not, to kill them or not. It never happened. At the very end, he asks why his father's body wasn't frozen for hypothetical later revival, and I liked the answer. But I would have been happier if he'd really had to make that decision - or for us to have been in Cordelia's point of view when she made the decision.
    
    But then, I've wanted another book (or scene) from Cordelia's point of view for some time.
    
    
11. Given what little we've seen of religious tradition on Barrayar, tending an ancestor's ashes or grave seems to be it - I would have liked to have Miles reflect on the matter. He does think about Piotr, which I liked very much indeed.
    
    
12. Speaking of point of view: Bujold changed point of view rather a lot, and I often wished she wouldn't. We get the point of view of Jin (twelve years old), Roic (sometimes), and Miles - I don't recall whether there are others. Jin gives up the outsider's point of view, someone who knows nothing of Miles or Barrayar, figuring out the plot as we do... And he was charming, but I'd generally have preferred to be reading about Miles.
    
    
13. The villains weren't terribly threatening. They were businessmen involved in a cover-up, making it up as they went. Not terribly ruthless. Not farcically incompetent. Just unscrupulous and opportunistic, trying to cover their butts. They didn't even murder people on purpose, just by accident. Not even Baron Ryoval in microcosm.
    
    Their thugs weren't much more threatening; the action, as a result, wasn't very tense.
    
    
14. I liked the hint or romance between Jin's mother and Vorlynken.
    
    
15. I did enjoy this, very much, but I'd prefer a sprawling family saga that featured Ekaterin and the children, and Gregor, Ivan, Aral and Cordelia, set on Barrayar, with a few Vorrutyers thrown in... ah well.
    

As usual with a Vorkosigan novel, I am left wanting more.